Russia wants to dismantle nuclear subs by 2010

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MOSCOW: Russia plans to dismantle all of its decommissioned nuclear submarines by ...

MOSCOW: Russia plans to dismantle all of its decommissioned nuclear submarines by 2010 with the help of international aid, an official with the federal nuclear energy agency said Monday. â€śWe hope to regulate the problem of dismantling the nuclear submarines by 2010 with the help of our international partners,â€ť a spokesman for the agency told AFP. Russia has about 100 decommissioned nuclear subs waiting to be dismantled and 70 of these still have nuclear reactors aboard, the spokesman said. The agency estimates it will need nearly four billion dollars to dismantle the subs, which pose an environmental threat to seas around the vast country. Some 192 Soviet-era and Russian submarines are thought to have been decommissioned since the 1980s, of which 89 have been dismantled. AFP

Ummm, does this have anything to do with the cash strapped position of the Russian armed forces Gary?

It's estimated that up to 80% of the penanted russian fleet is incapable of deployment. Of the 20% available, there are very few that are blue water capable in an "atlantic" sense.

In addition, 90% of their ports in the west are regarded as almost uninhabitable due to spillage, radiation leaks etc...

Russia, is in a mess. Take away their nukes and China could almost take them on at the moment..

I suspect that they will be hoping that the US will bankroll some of the clean-up again. The US pumped $6 billion into Russia a few years back to clean up some of their sites. Russia doesn't have the technology or the capability to do it themselves at this stage.

I can see the US and Germany stepping up to the plate to help out - again. Sweden would also get involved as they copped a bit of the rubbish from Chernobyl, and no one in Europe wants to see that happen again.

Its good to see the Russians are finally trashing all the stuff they dont need instead of sticking to the belief that they can become a superpower again by just mere possession. This would free up resources for more better use.

________________
Same bodies buried everywhere with different last names
Theres a right to obey and a right to kill

Oh well if you ask me, I'd say, they 'do need' them but cant afford to keep such stuff anymore. They lack funding majorly and so, half of their stuff has got to go to the scrap yard as lying idle, it would only harm the environment and have other detrimental effects!

Russian government is cash strapped at the moment, they can't even maintain their Kirov class cruiser. According to a Russian admiral the ship is a bomb waiting to explode. And through 1992 until now, only about 7 vessels enter service with the russian navy itself, others are made for export. The war in Chechnya is also creating a huge burden on their military, the level of resistance in Chenchyna is alot greater than Iraq.

________________ Marriage is an important part of getting ahead. It lets people know you’re not a homo. A married guy seems more stable. People see the ring, they think “at least somebody can stand the son of a bitch.” Ladies see the ring, they know immediately that you must have some cash, and your cock must work.

The Zvezdochka dockyard federal state unitary enterprise in Severodvinsk has begun scrapping the K-38 multirole atomic submarine, which was the lead vessel in the project-671 series (the "Yersh", or in NATO parlance "Victor-1").

The sub is currently in a floating dock, where preparations are starting for removal of the reactor's active zones, the yard's press office told Interfax.

The K-38 multirole submarine was built at the Admiralty yard in Leningrad in 1966 and was officially handed over to the navy on 5 November 1967. Christened "50 Years of the USSR", she went on to serve with the Northern Fleet. (Passage omitted)

The K-38 will be the fifth submarine to be scrapped at Zvezdochka with Canadian funding. (Passage omitted)

________________ A corollary of Finagle's Law, similar to Occam's Razor, says:

Cannibalization of the B-502 Belgorod multi-role nuclear-powered submarine has ended at the docking chamber of the Zvyozdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk, Yelena Korostel, official of the shipyard's press service, said on Wednesday.

It is the fourth of the 12 submarines that Zvyozdochka plans to scrap under an accord with Canada, Korostel told Interfax.

The B-502 was laid down at the Admiralteiskiye Verfi shipyard in 1979 and commissioned by the Navy in 1981.

It was written off from the Northern Fleet in 2000.

Korostel recalled that Zvyozdochka cooperates with the Canadian Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ministry in the framework of the Global Partnership program, aimed at limiting proliferation of weapons and materials of mass destruction.

Canada announced at the G-8 summit in 2002 that it was ready to assign about $750 million for this purpose over the next decade.

Zvyozdochka has so far received about $8 million from the Canadian Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ministry for the scrapping activity that was already carried out.

edit note: Canadian financial figures adjusted pending confirmation from source. Russian article states "billion" but in all likelihood is "million". I've edited it in anticipation of confirmation about the original typo.

________________ A corollary of Finagle's Law, similar to Occam's Razor, says:

I'd like to start with some figures. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union built more nuclear-powered ships than any other country - about 250 nuclear missile submarines, five surface ships, including several heavy missile cruises of the Admiral Ushakov class, eight ice-breakers, the most famous of which bore Lenin's name, and one lighter carrier ship Sevmorput.

But no infrastructure was built for scrapping these ships after decommissioning. There was no system for the storage and disposal of liquid and solid spent fuel and other radioactive waste.

As a result, Russia has inherited a huge problem of cleaning its territorial waters and lands of what people have dubbed the "floating Chernobyls." The sinking of any decommissioned submarine with nuclear fuel may trigger a major ecological disaster.

The spent fuel of all nuclear submarines amounts to 25 million curies. The aggregate weight of all radioactive construction materials slated for disposal exceeds 150,000 tons, and that of metal, about 1.5 million tons. A special "atomic train" will have to make a hundred trips to get this spent fuel from the Northern and Pacific fleets, and take it to the Mayak waste treatment plant in the southern Urals. However, it can make 10-15 such trips annually.

And one more figure, which is indispensable for understanding the scale of the problem - $4 billion will have to be spent on nuclear waste disposal and recovery of contaminated territories.

Russia has been dealing with the scrapping of nuclear submarines and surface ships for many years. Its annual spending for the purpose stands at about 2 billion budget rubles (about $70 million) per year. Substantial help is coming from the United States under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Before 2001, the U.S. earmarked $40 million a year for the purpose. Now that the disposal of the decommissioned strategic nuclear submarines has almost been completed, this assistance has been reduced to $20 million. But other countries have increased their help under the Global Partnership program. In 2004, the relevant figure was $74 million. This comprehensive effort has allowed Russia to scrap 133 nuclear submarines, including 90 subs in its Northern Fleet and 43 in its Pacific Fleet.

Deputy head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power Sergei Antipov, the number one domestic expert on submarine dismantling, believes that although by 2012 Russia will have disposed of its submarines, it will still have to remove spent fuel from coastal storage facilities, and recover contaminated territories. These tasks will be very time-consuming.

The problem is not limited to the shortage of funds allocated by donor countries, even though it is part of it. After the approval of the Global Partnership program in Kananaskis, Canada, the G8 promised to earmark $2 billion for this purpose. But only $438.5 million worth of working contracts have been concluded up to now. A mere $313.48 million have been received by disposal facilities. Meanwhile, Russia has been increasing its contribution to submarine utilization every year and has already spent at least $400 million to this end, including $290 million since Kananaskis. It is planning to bring its share in the Global Partnership to $850 million by the year 2012.

But the main headache is the enormous scale of what still has to be done. Moreover, it is also essential to ensure the safety of the disposal effort.

Today, Germany is helping Russia to build coastal storage platforms for reactor compartments, on the Kola Peninsular, Saida Bay. It should be ready by 2010. A total of 120 compartments with submarine nuclear reactors will be kept on open grounds, losing their radioactivity.

A floating dock will also have to be built for delivering these compartments to the platforms from the Nerpa Shipyard near Murmansk, which dismantles submarines. Railway carts are a must for transporting compartments, which weigh 1,600 tons. There should also be premises for repairing reactor compartments and coating them with anti-corrosion materials. Houses for the service personnel will have to be assembled as well.

The pot is kept boiling. The Germans have already spent half of the allotted sum of 300 million euros, and the first platform for 40 compartments was supposed to be opened this summer. But Federal Agency for Nuclear Power officials asked their German colleagues to expand the storage area for another 30 compartments in order to keep 150 compartments instead of 120 in the Saida Bay. The Germans have accepted the proposal, and, hence, the construction of the platforms will be somewhat delayed.

Britain and Norway are greatly helping the northwest of Russia in dismantling submarines and ensuring safe storage of spent nuclear fuel. Their money was used to dispose of two Project 949 Granite submarines and two Project 671 Shchuka submarines. The Andreyev Bay is being decontaminated. It contains one of the world's biggest storage facilities for more than 20,000 reactor clusters. Italy is also joining the effort. It will allot 360 million euros to build a facility for the procession and storage of radioactive waste in the Andreyev Bay, and special containers for the removal of fuel from the village of Gremikha, located some 350 km from the Kola Gulf.

In the past, this village housed a big base of nuclear submarines, which left about 800 contaminated reactor clusters with 1.5 tons of radioactive materials. Gremikha is not connected with Murmansk by a land road - only by air or sea. This makes it impossible to transport clusters to the Mayak plant by railway.

Transportation of submarines from storage facilities to disposal plants is also a problem, which is slowing down their scrapping. In the north the distance is no more than 500 km, but in the Far East, the distance from the Kamchatka Peninsular, where submarines are kept, to processing plants in Primorye Territory is 2,500 km. Unlike the Polar Circle, in the Far East the only way is to ship submarines by sea. The journey of one submarine costs no less than $1 million.

This is the reason why the Far East is somewhat behind the north in implementing the submarine disposal schedule. In the Arctic, only 30 out of 120 have not been dismantled, whereas in the Far East, the relevant figures are 34 and 77.

Tokyo has promised to precipitate submarine disposal in the Far East. In the 1990s Japan helped to build a ship for the storage and procession of liquid radioactive waste, and funded the disposal of one submarine in 2004. After Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan, Tokyo paid for the scrapping of another five submarines. Although, some people in Japan claim that Russia is spending the money of the Japanese taxpayers not only to get rid Russia of the old submarines, which spell ecological disaster for the ocean and its fish, but also to develop more modern combat ships. This has nothing to do with reality, but is always hard to prove.

For all its difficulties, Russia is abiding by its commitments in good faith, said Sergei Antipov. When this article is posted, maybe Russia will get rid of another floating Chernobyl.

________________ A corollary of Finagle's Law, similar to Occam's Razor, says:

The disposal of the ballistic missile submarine TK-12 has begun at a base of the Sevmashpredpriyatiye (SMP) and Zvezdochka shipyards in Severodvinsk, in northwest Russia, Interfax was told.

"The support systems of the submarine were reinitiated to secure the removal of spent nuclear fuel. The corresponding dismantling operations were then conducted," Aleksandr Kobko of SMP's repair and disposal department said.

The submarine is now at berth of Zvezdochka's special-purpose shore facility, where spent nuclear fuel is being unloaded, he noted. This facility was built at Zvezdochka under the US Congress' Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programme.

The facility consists of a specialized berth equipped with a bridge crane and radiation control systems, as well as roofed pads for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel containers, and approach railways. The unloaded fuel is later put in special containers that are accumulated at roofed pads until there are enough of them to fill a railway car. After that the containers are shipped to spent nuclear fuel processing plants in special cars.

"The operation should end in June. After that, equipment will be removed from the submarine and its hull will be dismantled. In compliance with safety requirements, the section with reactor units will be sealed off, launched and transported to the storage facility at Sayda Bay on the Kola peninsula," Kobko said.

The TK-12 heavy nuclear-powered strategic submarine (Project 941 Akula/Typhoon) was laid down at SMP on 19 January 1980, set afloat on 17 December 1983 and added to the Northern Fleet inventory on 15 January 1985.

The submarine was written off in 1998 and transferred from the permanent stationing base to Severodvinsk for scrapping in summer last year.

The TK-12 is the second of the navy's Akula (Typhoon) class submarines to be decommissioned and assigned for disposal. In 2005, SMP scrapped the TK-202 submarine of the same class.

The scrapping is being carried out in the framework of the CTR programme, also known as Nunn-Lugar programme.

CTR was adopted in 1991 at the initiative of US Congress. Its main objectives are the destruction of carrier rockets, their launchers and chemical weapons, and control over nuclear weapons and their components on the territory of the former USSR.

US Congress has assigned over 3.1bn dollars for this programme.

________________ A corollary of Finagle's Law, similar to Occam's Razor, says:

Russia has disposed of 61 nuclear-powered submarines since 2002, including 17 with international assistance, Director of the Foreign Ministry's Security and Disarmament Department Anatoly Antonov told Itar-Tass.

Being the G8 chairman, Russia carries on the Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, which was launched at the Kananaskis summit in 2002, he said.

It is a matter of allocating $20 billion within ten years for cooperation priorities, including the disposal of decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines, chemical weapons and fissile materials, and the employment of former weapon-makers, he said.

G8 financial commitments until 2012 include $2 billion of Russia, $10 billion of the United States, 1.5 billion euros of Germany, one billion euros of the European Union, one billion euros of Italy, 750 million euros of Italy, $750 million of the United Kingdom, $650 million of Canada, and $200 million of Japan.

The Global Partnership has brought results for Russia, Antonov said. Russia has received $313.48 million for the disposal of decommissioned submarines and $373.69 million for chemical disarmament since 2002. Partners have helped Russia to commission two chemical disarmament facilities in Gorny in the Saratov region and Kambarka in Udmurtia. Another chemical disarmament facility is being built in Shchuchye in the Kurgan region. Further assistance is possible, the diplomat said.

The Russian budget has assigned over $1 billion for chemical disarmament since 2002, he said.

Source: OSINT Sidenote. Australia has provided funds for the dismantling of one sub via teh auspices of the Japanese delegation. ie Japan accepts the Australian funds and then then work is distributed under their terms with the Russians.

________________ A corollary of Finagle's Law, similar to Occam's Razor, says:

The B-292 Perm multirole nuclear submarine has moored at berth No 9 of the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk for scrapping.

Zvezdochka told Interfax-Military News Agency that the B-292 would be the eighth multirole nuclear submarine whose scrapping has been funded by Canada.

The active reactor zone will be dismantled in autumn 2006, and the submarine proper will be scrapped in 2007, the year of the submarine's 20th anniversary

The submarine was shipped from the Arctic to Severodvinsk by a Zvezdochka crew headed by Capt First Rank (Ret'd) Mikhail Vasilyev. The submarine was escorted by the Sadko, a diesel-electric motor vessel belonging to the yard.

The B-292 nuclear submarine (Project 671RTM, code-name Shchuka, Victor-III under NATO classification) is the flagship submarine of its series. It was built at the Admiralty Yard in St Petersburg in March 1987. In November 1987 it came into service with the 33rd Division of the Northern Fleet, based in Zapadnaya Litsa, and then with the 7th Nuclear Submarine Division, based in Vidyayevo, when the 33rd Division was disbanded.

The submarine has a length of 106.1 metres, beam of 10.8 metres, a full displacement of 7,225 cubic metres, a maximum dive of 600 metres, and endurance of 80 days.

On 26 July 2002, at the initiative of the Perm administration, the submarine was named after the city.

The submarine was to have undergone a two-year overhaul starting in 2004 and served for eight to ten more years. However, due to lack of money it was decided to scrap it.

________________ A corollary of Finagle's Law, similar to Occam's Razor, says:

The Russian fleet is to receive six full-fledged aircraft-carrying attack groups within the next twenty years with additional forces and one aircraft-carrier in each, the Russian Fleet’s Commander-in-Chief Admiral Vladimir Masorin told reporters on Tuesday.
Three attack groups are to be based in the Northern Fleet with three others in the Pacific Fleet. This number of ships will make it possible to keep two aircraft-carrying vessels on duty and two more in alertness while two others can undergo repair and modernization works.

The new vessels will exceed the number of aircraft-carriers of the Soviet fleet in the late 1980s with four heavy carriers, Kiev, Minsk, Novorossiysk and Baku.

The construction of the first new aircraft-carrying ship for the fleet is to start in the next decade. Until then, Russian is going to start using a new series of surface battleships to accompany the aircraft-carriers, fight planes and submarines. Russia is also going to build a flight simulator for pilots of seaborne aircrafts to replace an old one situated in Ukraine.

The reform will raise the fleet to 300 battleships. The share of vessels in the ocean zone will grow dramatically.

Holy f*ck is this even possible ,they have planned 6 aircraft carriers and 300 big surface combatants till 2020 , i somehow see this as a imposible scenario ,300 big ships and 6 carriers in 20 years , and with russian economy at the current state I just can't see this happening.
And why would they want to build " battleships "

Last edited by Preceptor; July 11th, 2007 at 10:17 PM.
Reason: language